Setting the record straight on Pipp, Gehrig

ASSOCIATED PRESSLou Gehrig, pictured here during Spring Training in 1936, broke into the Yankees' lineup, due to manager Miller Huggins shaking up the lineup and benching Wally Pipp. Not due to Wally Pipp having a headache as legend claims.

Was watching a college baseball game the other day, and when announcing the starting lineups, the broadcasters mentioned that a player for one of the teams was going to miss his first game of the season with a slight injury, but he would be OK for the club’s next game.

The replacement player singled and drove in a run in his first at-bat, and by the time the young man doubled in his second, the on-air team was in full Wally Pipp mode.

You know the story, one of the most famous in baseball history. Pipp was a star first baseman for the Yankees, and in 1924, he hit .294 with nine homers, a league-leading 19 triples and 114 RBIs. But on June 2, 1925, Pipp supposedly had a headache and asked out of the lineup. Manager Miller Huggins inserted a young Lou Gehrig, who went on to play in 2,130 consecutive games, relegating Pipp to the footnotes of history and serving as a lesson to all players in all sports for all-time to never ask out of a game.

Great story, right? Too bad it’s not true.

The Yankees won three straight American League pennants from 1921-23, and in ’24 finished a close second to Washington, just two games behind the Senators. Huggins was optimistic that the Yanks would regain first place in 1925. Things didn’t quite work out that way.

First of all, the team’s best player, Babe Ruth, came down with what was termed a “bellyache” but which was in fact a sexually transmitted disease (what was it about those ’25 Yankees and untrue stories?). Ruth missed the first two months of the season, and by the time he returned June 1, in the team’s 42nd game, the Yankees were in seventh place in the eight-team league, 13½ games behind the first-place Philadelphia A’s.

In fact, the whole team was in a slump. Pipp, for instance, was hitting just .244 with three homers and 21 RBIs. Huggins decided to take a drastic action the next day, June 2. In the account of that day’s game in the New York Times on June 3, the following was written:

“Miller Huggins took his favorite lineup and shook it to pieces. Wally Pipp, after more than 10 years as a regular first baseman, was benched in favor of Lou Gehrig, the former Columbia University fence-wrecker. Aaron Ward, another old standby, surrendered second base to Howard Shanks. Steve O’Neill and Wally Schang perched themselves comfortably on the bench while Benny Bengough donned the mask and protector.

“The most radical shakeup of the Yankees lineup in many years left only three regulars of last season in the batting order — (third baseman Joe) Dugan, Ruth and (left-fielder Bob) Meusel.”

Gehrig, incidentally, wasn’t setting the world on fire. Prior to being inserted in the lineup, he was batting just .167 with no homers and zero RBIs. And even though he hit .348 (31-for-89) with six homers and 16 RBIs in June, Huggins still wasn’t sold on the brawny left-handed hitter.

The July 11 edition of the New York Times reported, “Huggins is not completely satisfied with the daily exhibitions of Lou Gehrig. The mite one went so far the other day as to send Fred Merkle, the ancient ex-Giant, to first base against a left-handed pitcher.

Gehrig’s hitting against right-handers has been robust enough, but he is still weak against the portsiders.”

Nevertheless, Pipp could not work his way back into the lineup, and he did in fact end up suffering a headache and a pretty severe one at that. On July 2, 1925, Pipp was beaned during batting practice by right-handed pitcher Charlie Caldwell, who later would go on to become the very successful football coach at Princeton University. Pipp lost consciousness and was hospitalized, and this was very serious stuff coming on the heels of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman being fatally injured by a pitched ball five years earlier.

Pipp recovered but never enough to regain the first-base job from the strapping young Gehrig, who belted 20 homers and had 68 RBIs, while batting .295. He never hit below .300 again until 1938, the season before he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Pipp hit just .230 with three homers and 24 RBIs, and on Jan. 15, 1926, his contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds for $7,500. The New York Times the next day reported, “Wally Pipp, for 11 years first baseman of the Yankees and one of the most popular players who ever cavorted locally, was sold down the river yesterday to Cincinnati.”

Pipp retired after the 1928 season. In 15 big-league seasons, he batted .281 with 90 home runs and 997 RBIs and twice led the American League in homers.
As for the ’25 Yankees, they remained in seventh place and finished 28½ games behind pennant-winning Washington. Their 69-85 record was the only losing season the franchise experienced from 1919 to 1964.

But Huggins’ decision to jettison his veterans and provide the younger players on the Yankees’ roster playing experience proved prescient. The Yankees won the next three American League pennants and captured the World Series in 1927 and 1928.

• WE’RE IN THE MONEY: According to Forbes magazine, our three local major-league teams rank in the top six in franchise value.

For the 15th straight year, the Yankees rank as the most valuable franchise, this time with a record worth of $1.85 billion. The Phillies are fifth at $723 million and the Mets are right behind at $719 million.

Between the Yankees and the Phils are the Los Angeles Dodgers, second at $1.4 billion; the Boston Red Sox, third at $1 billion; and the Chicago Cubs, fourth at $879 million.